Generally, scheduled castes are also called untouchable castes. Untouchability is that system of society, because of which one society cannot touch another society on the basis of tradition, if touched it becomes unholy on its own and has to make some kind of atonement to get rid of this impurity. Therefore, they are defined on the basis of untouchability. Scheduled Caste is generally taken to mean those castes mentioned in the Schedule to the Constitution for providing religious, social, economic and political facilities. They are also called untouchable castes, dalit classes, external castes and Harijans, etc. Scheduled castes are defined on the basis of castes that earn their livelihood through abusive occupations, but this is not a universally accepted basis for determining untouchability. Untouchability is primarily concerned with the notion of purity and impurity. In Hindu society some businesses or works have been considered holy and some are considered impure. Here the substances emanating from the body of man or animal and bird are considered impure. In such a situation, castes engaged in business related to these substances were considered impure and were called untouchables. Untouchability is a system of society under which individuals belonging to castes considered untouchable cannot touch the upper caste Hindus. – Untouchability implies’ that which is untouchable. ‘Untouchability is a belief according to which a person becomes impure by touching, seeing and shadowing another person. Separate arrangements were made for untouchable people to live, to save the upper caste Hindus from being polluted, many disabilities were imposed on them and many measures were taken to avoid their contact. Under the untouchables are those ethnic groups whose touch makes other people unholy and who have to perform some special rituals to become holy again. In this regard
Dr. K. N. Sharma wrote, “Untouchable castes are those whose touch makes a person impure and has to do certain acts to become holy. RN Saxena has written that if such people are considered untouchables In such a situation, if the Hindus had to be purified by touching, according to an example of Hattan, the Brahmins would also be considered untouchable as the Holia caste people in South India would not let the Brahmin go from the middle of their village and if recognized they would We purify the village.
Keeping in view the above difficulties, Hattan has mentioned some such disabilities on the basis of which attempts have been made to determine untouchable castes. You have considered those untouchables who are (a) ineligible to receive the service of high status Brahmins, (b) are unworthy to serve barbers, kahars and lakis serving the upper caste Hindus, (c) in Hindu temples Be ineligible to gain entry, (d) be ineligible to use public facilities (school, road and well), and (y) be disqualified from detached profession. Uniform treatment of untouchables is not found in the whole country, nor is there any equality in social status of untouchables in different parts of the country. Therefore, the above grounds given by Hattan are also not final.
Dr. D. N. Majumdar, “Untouchable castes are those who suffer from various social and political disabilities, out of which many disabilities are traditionally prescribed and socially enforced by the upper castes. “It is clear that there are many disabilities or problems related to untouchability which are mentioned further.
“Ram Gopal Singh states that” the attitude of untouchability is not related to caste but to traditional hatred and backwardness. ” N. In Majumdar’s words, “Untouchable castes are those who suffer from various social and political disabilities, most of whom are determined by tradition to be enforced by socially upper castes.
“According to Kailashnath Sharma” Untouchable castes are those whose touch causes a person to be impure and must perform certain acts to become holy. “Clearly, untouchability is related to the general disabilities of the lower castes of society, due to which these The castes are considered impure and have to be repaid by the higher and touchable castes when they are touched. However, after attaining independence, the spirit of untouchability has been banned by accepting untouchability as a social crime and ‘Untouchability – Prevention Act – 1955’ has been implemented in this regard.
Problems Or Disabilities Of Scheduled Castes
Religious Disabilities Temple – Restrictions on entry and use of holy places were considered unholy and many disabilities were imposed on them. These people were not given the right to enter the temple, use the holy rivers, go to holy places and worship the deities at their own homes. They were not allowed to study and listen to the Vedas or other religious texts. They were also not allowed to burn the bodies of their relatives at the public crematorium.
Religious Pleasures – Denial of Facilities – Untouchables were denied all kinds of religious facilities. Even upper caste Hindus were ordered to separate untouchables from their religious life. In Manusmriti, it is said that no opinion should be given to the untouchables, nor should they be given the remaining part of the food, nor should they receive the offerings of Devbhog, nor should the Holy Law be explained before them. But the burden of penance should be put on austerity. . . . He, who interprets the sacred law (for the untouchables) or compels him to do penance or atonement, with that (untouchable) himself will be drowned in the inferno called Asvrit. The untouchables are not given the right to worship, worship, Bhagavatabhajan, kirtan, etc. Brahmins are not allowed to perform puja, shradh and yajna, etc. here.
Restrictions on the editing of religious rites – Untouchables have been considered unholy since birth and for this reason – rites have not been arranged for their purification. Sixteen major rites in religious texts for purification
Is mentioned. The right to complete most of these is not given to the untouchables. They have not been allowed to perform major rituals like Vidyarambha, Upanayana and Chudakaran.
Social Disabilities There have been many social disabilities of the untouchables, the main ones being:
Ban on social contact The untouchables were not allowed to have social contact with upper caste Hindus and participate in their conferences, seminars, panchayats, festivals and celebrations. They have been deprived of food and drink relations with upper caste Hindus. Even the shadow of the untouchables was considered impure and they were not allowed to use public spaces. Due to the possibility of the upper caste Hindus being polluted with their vision, the untouchables had to do all their work at night. In many places in South India, they were not even allowed to walk on the streets. It has been told in Manusmriti that the marriage and contact of the Chandals or the untouchables should be with those who are equal and they should not be given the right to visit the village or city at night.
Restrictions on the use of public goods – The untouchables were not allowed to fill water from wells used by other Hindus, were not allowed to study in schools and stay in hostels. These people were not allowed to use items used by the upper castes. They could not use brass and bronze utensils, could not wear good clothes and gold jewelery. The shopkeepers do not give them food, the washermen do not wash their clothes, do not make barber hair and do not fill the water. He was also not allowed to live in the colony or locality of other upper caste Hindus. It has been told in the scriptures that the place of residence of the Chandals and Shwapakas will be outside the village, they will be ineligible and the dogs and mules will be their wealth. In this regard, it has been said in the Manusmriti that the clothes or old rag of the dead person should be their clothes, the broken pieces of clay should be their utensils, these people keep visiting iron and night. Depriving people of public facilities, not only the untouchables but even the Shudras, the instructions to get education, constitutional arrangements and welfare schemes . They were not given the right to entertain themselves by joining chaupals, fairs and haats. The result was that a large section of the society remained illiterate.
Hierarchy even within the untouchables – A surprising thing is that even among the untouchables, the system of storage i.e. differentiation of high and low is found. These people are divided into more than three hundred upper and lower caste groups, the status of each group is higher or lower than each other. In this regard M . Panikkar states that “the strange thing is that within the untouchables themselves there was a separate organization similar to that of the untouchables… Like the Savarna Hindus, they also had a very high and low status of subcastes, which were superior to each other. She claimed to be
Untouchables as a separate society Untouchables have suffered from many disabilities. About this Panikkar wrote, “The status of these untouchables (the fifth Varna) was worse than slavery in many ways when the caste-system was active in its youth. The slave was subject to at least one master and therefore his own The Swami had personal relations, but the family of the untouchables had the burden of slavery throughout the village. Instead of keeping the individuals slaves, some untouchable families were associated with each village as a kind of collective slavery. ‘ No person belonging to the upper castes could have a personal relationship with any untouchables. ”
Economic Disabilities– The untouchables were entrusted with all the tasks which were not done by the upper caste Hindus. Due to economic disabilities, the economic condition of the untouchables became so pathetic that they were forced to fulfill their needs only with the false food of the Savarnas, torn clothes and old articles. Their economic disabilities are as follows:
Professional Disability – The untouchables were entrusted with the task of lifting feces, urine, cleaning dead animals and making items from their leather. To cultivate them. The right to conduct business or to get a job after getting education was not given. These people mostly work as “landless” laborers in the villages. These people have these disabilities.
It was loaded that they cannot adopt any other profession except their traditional profession.
Property Disability – In addition to commercial disability, they also suffered from property disability. They were not given permission to collect land – rights and money. Manusmriti states, “The untouchable person should never accumulate wealth, even if he is capable of doing so, because a Shudra who stores wealth hurts Brahmins. Elsewhere, it has also been told that a Brahmin can confiscate the property of his Shudra servant by his own will because he does not have the right to own property. The untouchables had to serve their masters as slaves, no matter how little they were given as a reward. Acharya VinobaBhave started the ‘Bhoodan’ movement for untouchables’ property.
Not enough food facilities (economic exploitation) -Untouchables have been exploited economically. They were forced to adopt disgusting and disgusting occupations, and were not given enough in return to have enough food. In return for their important services, the society gave them the remaining false food, discarded items and torn – old clothes. The Hindus considered all this behavior in the name of religion justified and forced the untouchables to remain content with this system. He was told that if he does not follow his duties properly in this birth, the next life will be even lower. Thus the untouchables had to suffer economic exploitation.
Political Disabilities- The untouchables have been denied all kinds of rights in the field of politics. They were not given any right to interfere in any form of governance, to make any suggestions, to get jobs for public services or to obtain political security. Anyone could offend and even beat the untouchables. They did not have protection against such practices. for them . There was also a system of severe punishment for common crime. The discriminatory policy of punishment is clearly mentioned in Manusmriti. _ _ _ _ In this book, it is said that while the law for Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas was sworn in the name of Truth, Arms and Gau respectively, before giving justice to the untouchables. In the form of oath, arrangements were made to walk seven steps with eight fingers long – wide hot iron in hand. The hardness of the substance shows from this that Manu has told that the lower class man (Shudra or untouchable) will be cut off from his limb with which he can hurt the upper class persons. . . . . . . . . He who raises a hand or stick will have his hand cut off. It is clear that untouchables have had many political disabilities. The above disabilities of untouchables are particularly related to the medieval social system.
Currently the problems of untouchables are mainly social and economic and not religious and political. For so long, being deprived of all rights, illiterate and having zero consciousness, it will take some time to improve their condition. People’s attitude towards them will change gradually and over time they will be able to flow into the mainstream of social life. Disabilities of untouchables are getting eliminated in cities, but in rural areas today they are visible. The main reason for this is that grama – the pace of social change is slow, conservatism still dominates there.